The Cabin of Peter I

After the foundation of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Peter I ordered to build a house not far from it. The Cabin of Peter the Great was built from pinewood during 3 days: between 24 and 26 May 1703. The house did not have a stone foundation, it stood on the ground. The area of the building was 60 m². On the roof of the building there were a wooden mortar and a “flaming” ball indicating that the house belonged to a “captain of the bombardier company”. During Peter the Great’s staying at the house the tsar’s colour with a double-headed eagle streamed on a high flagstaff.

Peter I lived in the Original Palace between 1703 and 1708 in warm seasons, most likely during military operations that became more intense in spring, summer and autumn.

In 1723 in honour of the capital’s jubilee by personal order of Peter I, the house was surrounded by a protective stone gallery to preserve it for the future. The works were carried out by the chief architect of St Petersburg Domenico Trezzini who was the author of the project. Nevertheless, periodic floods were destroying the gallery; and in 1784 a new construction on the foundation of the old one was built, repeating its architectural forms.

In 1844 the casing required repairs again. The architect Roman Kuzmin designed a casing that has been preserved to the present day, exactly in the borders of the old gallery, continuing traditions of careful attitude to the Petrine memorial. The walls of the cabin were underpinned, stone vaulted tunnels-water drains were laid under the foundation.

In 1889 the building was extended: from the North and from the East two portals were attached to the casing. The southern wing was meant for keeping a memorial boat wherry.

In the 1870s the area of the house was surrounded by cast-iron railings. On the side of the Neva at the entrance to the garden, a bronze bust of Peter I by the sculptor Parmen Sabella (after Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli’s original) was erected.

For a long time the cabin kept a priceless relic – the icon of the Image of Edessa that belonged to Peter I, accompanied the tsar during campaigns and followed him to his grave. In 1742 for worshiping the Image, Elizabeth Petrovna wished to found a chapel in the Dining Room of the house. The icon is in the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour now.

In 1930 the Cabin of Peter the Great State Museum opened in the Original Palace. The restoration carried out by the architect Alexander Hessen in 1971–1975 approximated the cabin to its original design.

In 1999 the historical planning of the area and railings of the outer garden were recreated; inner railings with recreation of all lost details and original colouring were restored. In 2004 the Cabin of Peter the Great formed part of the architectural and artistic complex of the State Russian Museum.